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It was an evening in late 1984 when Jonathan Shank, a young kid from a suburb of Philadelphia, walked into a stadium with his family in tow, sat down in his assigned seat and experienced his very first live concert, an event that would dramatically influence the course of his life. On stage that night was The Jackson 5, performing one stop on their 55-city Victory Tour.



Shank was immediately in awe.



“There was this one moment during the show where Michael Jackson came and sat by the edge of the stage,” Shank says. “The crowd went really, really crazy.”



Although he couldn’t articulate it as a kid, Shank was deeply impacted by the experience of being in the same room with thousands of people, all enjoying live music. The energy was electric and infectious.



That experience propelled Shank, CEO of artist management and production company Terrapin Station Entertainment, to a career focused on creating experiences just like this for audiences around the world.







Shank’s parents noticed their son’s interest, and for many years after The Jackson 5 concert, the family would spend summers at the Jersey Shore, taking Shank to see groups like Chicago and Hall &amp; Oates in nearby Atlantic City. By the time he hit his teens, Shank was venturing out to shows on his own, favoring bands of the time like Milli Vanilli, INXS and U2.



Shank attended Tulane University in New Orleans, where he majored in sociology but always looked for interesting music classes. (The university did not have business-related music classes.) When he found a course called “The History of Jazz,” he signed up immediately and started going to the professor’s office hours, telling the teacher he wanted to do something in the music business. An <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/the-benefits-of-working-with-interns/">internship</a> for credit was suggested, and within weeks, Shank was knocking on the doors of the House of Blues New Orleans.



“It was February 1994, and the House of Blues had literally just opened,” he remembers. “I turned up and asked for an internship, and they didn’t even have an internship program yet. I became an assistant to the assistant.”



It was a formative experience. Shank spent his time organizing artist photos and bios and taping show flyers to telephone poles all over the city. The experience introduced him to a wide variety of industry luminaries, from Bob Monroe and Bob Dylan to Dr. John and Allen Toussaint. From there, he interned for a record producer who encouraged him to move to Los Angeles to pursue a career in the music business.



Less than four months after walking across Tulane’s graduation stage, Shank was headed West.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-cutting-his-teeth-in-the-city-of-angels">Cutting his teeth in the City of Angels</h2>



It was the mid ’90s when Shank landed in LA. He was hungry to land a job in music, producing or assisting. He would take whatever he could get, but jobs were hard to come by. At the time, live music wasn’t a huge market. Instead, money was in selling records.



“I came out thinking I was going to get a job at a record label, but what I found was that the lines were very, very long for those jobs,” Shank remembers.



Undiscouraged, he worked odd jobs and developed friendships with anyone he could find in the business. Then, in late 1997, he landed an assistant role at a boutique music agency. Shank was <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/how-to-get-promoted-4-steps-to-prepare-for-the-next-step-in-your-career/">promoted</a> to agent by the end of his first year, and his career took off. The business was helping acts like The Marshall Tucker Band and Jefferson Starship tour around the country. He worked with the living members of The Doors and a group that played jazz interpretations of Grateful Dead songs. And while many of these groups were favored by fans older than Shank, he had grown up with such a diverse interest in music genres that he fit right in.



“I was a very young person who was able to form relationships with some older legacy artists, and I think they just got a kick out of the fact that I knew their music, knew what I was talking about,” he says. “It showed them that maybe there was a glimmer of light, that their music was going to last for a very long time… that there would be generations of people that came even after me that would be enjoying their music, consuming their videos, watching their shows.”



In fact, Shank’s perspective was revolutionary for the time because, in the mid-to-late ’90s, the music industry was focused on pop acts like ’N Sync and Backstreet Boys—not legacy artists like Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead.



“There was nothing glamorous about what I was doing at the time,” Shank remembers. “It was just grinding. But I loved it so much because I really connected with these artists. And it taught me all about touring and how to strategically put artists out on the road.



“It really became a theme in my career of working in underappreciated and underserved spaces. If there’s a core <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/how-to-find-your-audience-because-you-dont-need-everyone/">audience</a> there, even if it’s an audience that was there previously, you can always find a way to reignite that audience, to engage that audience, to find them again.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-embracing-fresh-ideas">Embracing fresh ideas</h2>



Shank’s career blossomed from there. By the early 2000s he was moving into day-to-day management for artists across genres—from LFO to Isaac Hayes to the band War. He was finding himself in rooms with some of the most powerful people in the business, organizing tours with megastars and lining up acts for major music festivals around the country.



Soon, he was working with Mickey Hart, a former drummer for the Grateful Dead. Shank helped connect Hart with performers to start a band and the relationships blossomed. The two are close to this day. (“He texted me this morning, actually,” Shank quips.)



Over the years, Shank expanded his reach to stars like Victoria Justice who were appearing on Nickelodeon. Around that time, there was a show on the same network called “The Fresh Beat Band,” and Shank proposed the idea of producing in-person events for the band. He came on as an executive producer, and the show—a nod to his unorthodox ideas—was a massive success. From there, he worked to bring Peppa Pig to live audiences—again, an enormous win.



Shank has done these shows with his company Terrapin Station Entertainment, which today is wildly successful. For the past few years, he’s worked to bring the Disney Jr. franchise live on tour, and this year, audiences across the Middle East, Southeast Asia and the United Kingdom are able to take in a physical show.



“Terrapin was formed out of the need to create a nontraditional entertainment company that could propel all of these brands and all of this content,” he says. “What I find is that, when you have one project that goes well, people can say, ‘Well, maybe you got lucky.’ But when you have two, you start to show a model, and you start to show how you’re building success on top of what you’ve previously done.”&nbsp;



 Photo by Em Walis. This article originally appeared in the <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/subscriptions/">May/June 2025 issue</a> of SUCCESS magazine.

From taping flyers in New Orleans to global Disney Jr. tours, Jonathan Shank built a 30-year career on bold ideas and legacy acts.

From taping flyers in New Orleans to global Disney Jr. tours, Jonathan Shank built a 30-year career on bold ideas and legacy acts. | SUCCESS

Live Events Producer Jonathan Shank Thinks Outside the (Music) Box

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Inside Jonathan Shank’s 30-Year Live Music Career | SUCCESS

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Boundaries.



What comes up for you upon reading this word?



For some, it is an eye roll, thinking of the proselytizing often akin to Instagram influencers in the self-help space. For others, it is a feeling of shame in knowing boundaries could help them in certain areas of their lives (e.g., at home, at work, maybe even around their hobbies). <a href="https://annemappel.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Anne M. Appel, M.A</a>., hears the word “boundaries” multiple times per day in sessions with her clients.



Appel is a licensed clinical professional counselor who helps couples, families and high-achieving business professionals from her Chicago office. In the years she’s been doing this work, she’s seen a steep increase in anxiety among her clients, especially those who occupy high-demand positions at work.



“Our brains have so many tabs open all the time with all of the information we’re getting fed,” she says. “It’s the first time since World War II that our life expectancies are going down. It is because our stress levels are so high.”



These “tabs” can be difficult to close, per se, especially for business leaders who have <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/work-life-blur/">hefty responsibilities</a>. Cue checking email at a family function, staying late at work and neglecting personal obligations. Appel sees this regularly in her practice and says a lack of boundaries around a person’s time can have catastrophic results—like needing to take leave from a job because a person’s central nervous system struggles to calm down. But beyond work, in the personal realm, she is witnessing some troubling trends.







“People have blown up their lives; marriages deteriorate like crazy,” she says. “That, typically, is where I see the heaviest impact on high-achieving people. It tends to be in their personal relationships, marriages and with their families.”



If you are having issues creating boundaries, you are not alone. It’s so common that Appel herself reports being guilty of it—and being called out by her 10-year-old son.



“My kids had been out of town for a couple of days with my husband, and they came home and wanted to watch something with me,” she says. “And it’s, of course, not something I’m interested in. And before you know it, [I have someone] calling me. I’ve got a client texting. I’m managing calendars while I’m [sitting] here because I’m just trying to make the most of my time. And my son gets very upset. He’s like, ‘You’re not even watching this with us.’”



Appel realized immediately that her son was right. She wasn’t present. She’d, as she says, gotten pulled into “urgency culture”—feeling like things needed to be done immediately. Once her son illuminated her lack of boundaries, she shifted gears.



“I was like, ‘He’s completely right,’” she says. “And I owe them my presence, so I’m going to put my phone on silent.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-link-between-boundaries-and-transformation">The Link Between Boundaries and Transformation</h2>



The conversation around boundaries often ends with stories of people so-called “failing” at <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/setting-healthy-boundaries-3-simple-steps-to-establishing-boundaries-that-stick/">setting boundaries</a> and doesn’t go into the transformation that can happen when they are implemented. Appel has seen positive transformations over and over in her clients.



One client, a woman in a high-achieving role, struggled so much with boundaries that she transitioned out of her job. The spillover of work into her life was, as Appel says, “wrecking her physically and emotionally.”



After several sessions together, the woman was able to create boundary-setting rituals, and the results have been profound.



“These days, she is doing a 30-minute restorative present yoga during her lunch hour every day,” Appel says. “She is so much happier. She’s able to have much healthier relationships with her family. Her dating life is much better. She feels much better about herself. She’s in control. When we get to the point of burnout, we are out of control. We’ve allowed ourselves to have our life be on fire.”



This client isn’t the only one who needed to hit rock bottom before setting boundaries. Appel sees this behavior frequently and encourages people to think about how boundaries could actually help them in their jobs and personal lives.



“I have seen people who were not able to set boundaries to the point of burnout,” Appel says. “And, sometimes, people need a hard reset to recover. I don’t ever want to see that happen to people. If we can make some changes along the way, we won’t get to that level.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-easily-achievable-tips-for-boundary-creation">Easily Achievable Tips for Boundary Creation</h2>



For Appel, creating boundaries means gaining control when things feel out of control. This starts with sleep, hydration, nutrition and exercise. Forgetting to eat is a frequent scenario she hears from clients. If body movement is an issue, take a phone call while walking on the treadmill. <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/20-simple-and-real-ideas-to-add-to-your-self-care-routine/">Self-care</a> doesn’t have to mean scheduling spa days. Instead, it can be tiny tweaks that bring increased feelings of nourishment and well-being.



Many of Appel’s clients struggle, in particular, with boundaries around their time at home. Her words of advice: Quality over quantity.



“[This] is where you see the best results,” she says. “You could be with your partner and kids all the time. Maybe you just went on vacation. [You tell them,] ‘I was with you the whole time.’ [But] you were on your phone or in your own world. They were asking for your presence. Not time.”



During busy times at work, she recommends chunking out tiny pieces of time and giving full presence. The effort can make a huge difference in relationships. This could look like driving children to school on Monday morning and, during that time, being completely present with them.



And when it comes to romantic partnerships, instead of scheduling a date, “go on a walk together,” she recommends, or ask them to sit down for 10 minutes for a cup of coffee together. “Sit down and just ask, ‘How really are you?’”



Ultimately, Appel suggests seeing rest as a positive in your life. “The reality is: Rest is productive,” she says. “Our jobs are not designed for us to rest and have these boundaries, so it is very important that we create them.”&nbsp;



This article originally appeared in the March/April 2025 issue of SUCCESS© magazine. Photo courtesy of Anne M. Appel.

Learn how creating healthy boundaries around our time and in life in general is beneficial both personally and professionally.

Learn how to create healthy boundaries around your time and life in general.

The Transformative Power of Boundaries in Life | SUCCESS

The Transformative Power of Boundaries and How to Create Them to Benefit Your Life

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Katie Morell

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Live Events Producer Jonathan Shank Thinks Outside the (Music) Box

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